Abstract 4648: How inherited mutations affect single cells within the tumor microenvironment in breast tumors stratified by receptor status
Authors: Dana Pueschl, Derek A. Oldridge, Jonathan Belman, William Chandler, Anupma Nayak, Bradley Wubbenhorst, John Pluta, Michael Feldman, E. John Wherry, Heather Thorne, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Kathleen Cuningham Foundation Consortium for Resea kConFab, Susan M. Domchek, Katherine L. Nathanson
Journal: Cancer Research (2023)

Abstract The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays important roles in tumor progression, therapy response and patient survival. In this comprehensive study, we performed a detailed multiomic single cell analysis of breast cancers with inherited mutations in different genes (BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, CHEK2), and wild type mutation negative (WT) patients, stratified by hormone receptor status, to understand the relationship between inherited mutation and immunogenicity. Using spatial tissue multiplexing (PhenoCycler), single cell RNAseq (10X Genomics) and bulk RNAseq, we evaluated cellular markers within the TME associated with DNA damage as well as phenotypes with tumor suppressive (M1, CD8 T cells, NK cells) or tumor promotive (M2, Treg, CAF) properties. We developed a 43-plex antibody panel and characterized eight tissue microarrays containing 443 patient samples from mutation carriers (BRCA1: n=142, BRCA2: n=118, CHEK2: n=2, TP53: n=3, PALB2: n=7) and WT tumors (n=171). We addressed how the TME differs in mutation carriers versus WT tumors stratified by receptor status. To further investigate immune cell function (cytolytic function, exhaustion, immune checkpoint) as well as pathways involved in immune suppression and/or promotion, we performed scRNA sequencing using isolated single cells from fresh collected BC samples (WT ER: n=3, BRCA2 ER: n=1, CHEK2 ER: n=1, VUS ER: n=1) and bulk RNA (BRCA1: n=17, BRCA2: n=9). To determine immune cell (IC) frequency, we analyzed CD45+ cells detectable in each cohort and their co-expression of markers to determine specific phenotypes. Our data suggest that within BRCA mutation-associated BC, there are two groups: 1) with increased tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) including CD8+ cytotoxic T cells with high cytolytic function; and 2) with decreased TILs and cytolytic function. The frequency of CD8+ T cells is significantly decreased in breast cancers with BRCA2 mutations compared to BRCA1. Characterizing ER+ CHEK2 BC reveals T cell exhaustion compared to WT ER+ BC. Furthermore, preliminary scRNA results reveal increased fibroblast markers in ER+ CHEK2 and ER+ WT compared to ER+ BRCA2 tumors. Interestingly, cancer associated fibroblast (CAFs) markers (ACTA2, COL1A1, FAP, PDGFRA, PDGFRB, PDPN, THY1) as well as TAMs (CCL2, CD163, CD206, CD68, IL10, LOX, PLOD2, SIGLEC1) are increased in ER+ CHEK2 tumors compared to ER+ WT. These data could provide insights into how the TME associated with ER+ CHEK2 mutations might be driven by CAFs and TAMs with a frequency much higher than in ER+ WT. The detection of immune suppressive (Treg, M2) and immune promotive (M1) phenotypes differs in BRCA1 compared to BRCA2 mutated and WT TNBC. Our findings could decipher the role of DNA repair gene mutations and their effect on cells within the TME that might influence the design of treatment options in patients with inherited mutations based on their receptor status. Citation Format: Dana Pueschl, Derek A. Oldridge, Jonathan Belman, William Chandler, Anupma Nayak, Bradley Wubbenhorst, John Pluta, Michael Feldman, E. John Wherry, Heather Thorne, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Kathleen Cuningham Foundation Consortium for Resea kConFab, Susan M. Domchek, Katherine L. Nathanson. How inherited mutations affect single cells within the tumor microenvironment in breast tumors stratified by receptor status. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 4648.